Hamas: Any incursion against al-Aqsa Mosque tantamount to all-out war

“The Palestinian nation will not allow the Zionist enemy to violate the al-Aqsa Mosque [‘s sanctity],” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told a rally held in support of the mosque in western Gaza on Friday.

“Any encroachment on and invasion of the al-Aqsa Mosque during the [upcoming] Jewish holidays is tantamount to opening the door to an all-out war on all fronts,” Qassem said.

According to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of Tel Aviv’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound, which is Islam’s third-holiest site, is prohibited.

Israeli settlers, however, regularly break into the compound under strict protection provided for them by Israeli forces.

Qassem said Israeli troops and illegal settlers would have no security as long as the regime keeps up its aggression and illegal construction activities upon the Palestinian land.

He said no one was capable of stopping Palestinians’ resistance operations in the occupied West Bank, which have witnessed a surge in retaliation against the regime’s incessant and regularly deadly violations against Palestinians.

The remarks came a day after the latest of the operations that took place in the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding several others.

And a day earlier, Palestinian resistance fighters set off an explosive device in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, injuring four Israeli forces.